Three years ago, we started Havend with one conviction: that insurance advice should be free from sales conflict and clients deserve a better experience. Today, on Havend’s third birthday, we mark this milestone with something we have spent the past year building, refining, and believing in — RetireSURE, our retirement planning service.
Let me start with a question I get asked a lot.
“I have CPF LIFE. Isn’t that enough?”
CPF LIFE is genuinely excellent. It is government-backed, it pays for life, and for most Singaporeans, maximising it should absolutely be part of the plan. I recommend it. We build around it.
But here’s the honest answer: CPF LIFE alone is a foundation.It is not the whole house. It carries policy risk (scheme terms can change). Your money is locked away with no liquidity. And if it becomes your only source of retirement income, you are overconcentrated in a single scheme. That’s not a comfortable position, regardless of how solid the foundation is.
RetireSURE is built on a simple idea: optimise your CPF, manage its limitations, and build on top of it with retirement annuities. So that your essential retirement expenses are covered reliably, every month, for as long as you need.
The goal is not to replace CPF LIFE. It is to complement it — so that your essential expenses are never dependent on a single source, never exposed to market swings, and never something that keeps you awake at night.
Why annuities, and not just investing?
I get this question too. “Why not just invest and draw down 4% a year?”
It is a reasonable strategy. But for discretionary spending, not for the essentials. Ask yourself this: if your investment portfolio dropped 20%, would you cut your essential spending by 20%? Your groceries, utilities, medical bills, insurance premiums — would those wait for markets to recover?
Probably not. Those expenses must go on. And that is exactly the problem with funding essential retirement needs through investments. The returns may be higher, but the certainty is not there. Sequence-of-return risk is real. Dividend income strategies can underperform. The 4% rule is a guideline, not a guarantee.
Retirement annuities solve a different problem. They are not trying to beat the market. They are trying to give you a reliable, predictable income stream — the certainty that your essential needs are met regardless of what happens in the world.
Why it works — four reasons.
Guaranteed income — full stop
A retirement annuity contractually guarantees your income, regardless of market conditions. It also provides additional income if the insurer performs well. Guaranteeing an income stream is something no investment can offer. Your investments can still do their job: funding holidays, dining out, the lifestyle extras — these expenses are highly flexible. But your essentials should not be hostage to market conditions.
No more “retirement range anxiety”
Watching your bank account or investment portfolio deplete with each withdrawal in retirement causes a very real kind of anxiety. I call it “retirement range anxiety” — the constant worry of money running out — not unlike what EV drivers experience. A regular monthly payout from the annuity changes that completely. Your income arrives. You spend with confidence. It helps you manage your cashflow better. The psychological relief is not a small thing.
You choose the duration
Want higher income in the early, active years of retirement? A fixed 10 or 20-year annuity works well. Worried about outliving your money? A lifetime annuity solves that. This flexibility is something investment portfolios simply cannot replicate with the same certainty. Shares and equities offer no such certainty of duration.
Bequest and liquidity options
A common misconception: that buying an annuity means giving up your capital forever. Annuities can be structured to preserve your premium — guaranteed death benefits and guaranteed surrender values can exceed what you put in, even after payouts have started. That matters whether you are planning a bequest, gifting a child for a property purchase, or facing a change in health that shortens your timeline.
What are the trade-offs? I’ll be upfront.
Annuities cannot match the returns of CPF Retirement Account. That’s the honest truth. But that comparison misses the point. You are not buying an annuity for returns — you are buying certainty, liquidity, flexibility, and peace of mind. In exchange for those, a slightly lower return is a reasonable and often worthwhile trade-off. Think of it less as an investment and more as building the infrastructure for your retirement income.
Who is this for?
In our conversations with clients, two kinds of people resonate most strongly with what RetireSURE offers:
“I don’t want to invest for retirement income.”
You are not comfortable with market risk, and you should not have to be. RetireSURE gives you a structured, reliable way to fund your essential retirement lifestyle — without needing to pick stocks, monitor portfolios, or worry about timing the market. It is not about being less sophisticated — it is about what is right for your needs.
“I invest — but I want a reliable income floor.”
You understand markets. You are comfortable with volatility. But you also know that your investment returns should not be carrying the weight of your monthly essentials. RetireSURE gives you that guaranteed income foundation, so your investments can do what they do best — chase higher returns for the discretionary spending that makes retirement enjoyable, without the pressure of funding your essentials.
A year in the making — and why it took that long.
I want to be transparent about this. RetireSURE did not come together quickly, and that was deliberate.
We spent a year asking hard questions within the team. Does this genuinely serve the client? Is our CPF optimisation approach sound? Are the annuity recommendations we make truly in the client’s best interest, or are we being influenced by what pays better?
That process — the internal debate, the refinements, training — is what independent advice should look like. It is why we exist as Havend. And it is why I am proud to introduce RetireSURE today.
If retirement income planning is something you or someone you care about has been putting off — I understand. It can feel complicated, and the stakes feel high. That is exactly why we built RetireSURE: to make it simpler, clearer, and something you can approach with confidence rather than dread.
Come have a conversation with us. Find out where you stand and what a reliable retirement income plan could look like for you.